Chapter 12
1100 Words
Selene’s POV
The silence after Kane left felt louder than the gunfire.
Rain still tapped against the broken window, softer now, like the storm was finally losing interest in us. My body hadn’t caught up to that fact. I was shaking too hard to stop, my teeth chattering despite the warmth of Cassius’s arms around me.
He didn’t rush me. Didn’t tell me to breathe or calm down. He just held me, solid and immovable, like if I stayed right there the world couldn’t break through.
“It’s over,” he said quietly. “For now.”
“For now,” I echoed, the words bitter.
Cassius shifted, easing us down against the wall. He checked the room again before sitting with his back to the door, one arm still wrapped firmly around me. Protector. Shield. Constant.
I pressed my forehead into his chest, listening to his heartbeat, strong, fast, and alive.
“I saw something,” I whispered.
Cassius stiffened just enough that I felt it. “What kind of something?”
“A memory,” I said. “Or part of one.” My fingers curled into his jacket. “It wasn’t clear. Just my father’s voice. He was scared. Urgent.”
Cassius didn’t interrupt.
“He said my name,” I continued. “And then…something about remembering. Like he knew this would happen. Like he planned for it.”
Cassius exhaled slowly. “That fits.”
I pulled back just enough to look at him. “Fits what?”
“Your father didn’t run without a reason,” he said. “And he didn’t disappear without contingencies. If Kane thinks the ledger is tied to you, then it’s not just hidden, it’s locked.”
“Inside me,” I whispered.
Cassius met my eyes. “Yeah.”
The word landed heavy between us.
I hugged myself instinctively. “What if I don’t want to remember?”
His jaw flexed. “Then we slow it down. Memories don’t have to come all at once.”
“And if they do?” I asked. “What if they tear me apart?”
Cassius leaned closer, his forehead resting briefly against mine. “Then I hold you together.”
Something in his voice made my chest ache.
“You shouldn’t say things like that,” I whispered.
“Why?”
“Because you might mean them.”
His mouth twitched, humorless. “I do.”
The admission hung there, dangerous and intimate.
I swallowed hard. “Kane said something else. Before he left.”
Cassius’s eyes sharpened. “What?”
“He said my father trusted people more than places,” I said. “Banks. Safes. All of it. He trusted people.”
Cassius went still.
“That’s important,” he said slowly.
“I don’t understand how.”
“Your father was smart,” Cassius said. “Paranoid, too. If he couldn’t trust institutions, then he trusted proximity. Things he could see. Touch.”
My stomach twisted. “You think he hid it with someone?”
“Or inside something,” Cassius replied. “Something you’ve been around your whole life.”
A flicker sparked in my mind.
My childhood bedroom.
The floorboard that always creaked.
The old music box that never worked right.
My breath caught sharply.
Cassius noticed immediately. “What?”
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “But something just…brushed against me. Like the edge of a memory.”
“Good,” he said gently. “That means it’s there.”
I laughed weakly. “That’s supposed to be good?”
“It means Kane isn’t wrong,” Cassius said. “But it also means he’s not ahead of us.”
I leaned back against the wall, exhaustion crashing over me in waves. My shoulder throbbed. My head ached. My heart felt too full and too fragile all at once.
“Cassius,” I murmured, “why are you still here?”
He didn’t answer right away.
“I don’t mean physically,” I clarified. “I mean…you could’ve walked away. Handed me over. Let Kane and Darius tear each other apart.”
His gaze darkened. “I don’t trade people.”
“I know,” I said. “But this is bigger than that.”
His voice dropped. “You think I don’t know?”
“Then why?” I pressed.
He looked away for a moment, jaw tight. When he looked back, his expression was stripped bare in a way that made my breath catch.
“Because if I lose you,” he said quietly, “I lose whatever part of me still believes I’m not a monster.”
The words hit me harder than any bullet.
“I didn’t mean to,” he added. “You just…showed up. And suddenly the lines moved.”
My chest ached. “Cassius…”
He shook his head. “I’m not asking for anything. I’m just telling you the truth.”
I reached out before I could stop myself, my fingers brushing his wrist. He didn’t pull away.
“Then here’s mine,” I said softly. “I’m terrified. And I don’t know who I am without all these missing pieces. But when I’m with you… I don’t feel alone in it.”
His hand curled over mine slowly, deliberately.
“You won’t be,” he said.
We stayed like that for a long moment, rain whispering around us, danger temporarily held at bay.
Eventually, Cassius stood. “We can’t stay here much longer.”
“Where do we go?” I asked.
“There’s a safe place,” he said. “Off-grid. Old territory. No one knows it exists except me.”
“And after that?”
His eyes met mine. “After that, we start digging. Carefully. On our terms.”
My pulse quickened, not with fear this time, but resolved.
“And Kane?”
Cassius’s mouth curved into something sharp and dangerous. “Kane thinks he’s hunting you.”
He helped me to my feet, steadying me when I swayed.
“He’s wrong,” Cassius continued. “He’s walking into a trap he doesn’t even see yet.”
I swallowed. “Because of the ledger?”
“No,” he said. “Because of you.”
The weight of that settled over me, not as fear, but as power.
As we stepped back out into the night, I felt it again.
That creak of a door inside my mind.
Not fully open.
But no longer locked.
And whatever my father left behind…
It was waiting for me to remember.
- Writer
